Sanofi (SNYNF,SNY) reported Friday that its second-quarter IFRS net income declined 11.1 percent to 1.158 billion euros from 1.302 billion euros past year.
Advertisement
That compared with a forecast for sales of €8.94 billion, Jefferies noted, while what Sanofi calls business net income – its preferred measure of net profit – declined 8.7% to €1.68 billion, just short of the €1.69 billion expected.
Aggregate Company sales decreased 4.3% to €8,868 million.
Sanofi is under pressure to diversify geographically and expand in areas such as oncology as it faces declining sales of its diabetes blockbuster Lantus. It recently offered around $9.5 billion for U.S. cancer specialist Medivation, which opened its books earlier this month in a sale process expected to attract other blue-chip bidders.
“We’re certainly pleased to have the opportunity to engage with Medivation”, Mr Brandicourt said.
Brandicourt said he stood by the group’s target of “broadly stable” earnings for the full year, but only when stripping out exchange rate factors.
Exchange rate swings had a negative effect of 4.1 percent on quarterly sales, Sanofi said, compounded by persistent difficulties in Venezuela.
Genzyme was Sanofi’s strongest performer with sales growth of 20.1 percent, due mainly to its multiple sclerosis and rare disease franchises, followed by its animal health divisions, where sales were up 9.1 percent.
Advertisement
Sales at the diabetes division were down 3.5 per cent, reflecting cut-price USA sales of Lantus following the expiry of its patent a year ago. Business earnings per share were 1.31 euros, down 7.1% from previous year.
